Urologists place third in physician earnings survey

Urologists rank third in earnings, tied with gastroenterologists, in a survey of physician compensation conducted by Medscape.

Only orthopedics ($413,000) and cardiology ($351,000) ranked higher in earnings than urology and gastroenterology (both $348,000) in 2013, according to the survey. Other top-earning specialties included radiology ($340,000) and anesthesiology ($338,000), while the lowest earners were physicians in HIV/infectious disease ($174,000), family medicine ($176,000), pediatrics ($181,000), diabetes/endocrinology ($184,000), and internal medicine ($188,000).

“As in the past, those who perform procedures have the highest incomes compared with those who manage chronic illnesses,” Medscape reported.

Earnings are for full-time work only and include salary, bonus, and profit-sharing contributions. For partners, data are based on earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses but before income tax. Earnings in the survey do not include non-patient-related earnings.

More than 24,000 physicians representing 25 specialties responded to this year’s survey, about 1% of whom were urologists. Physician recruitment took place in late 2013/early 2014. The survey also revealed:

• Three-fourths of urologists (75%) spend more than 40 hours per week seeing patients, placing urology fifth in this category.

• Just over half (55%) of urologists would choose medicine again as a career, and essentially the same number (54%) would choose urology.

• Forty-two percent of urologists are satisfied with their income.

• Half of urologists report overall satisfaction with their career. General career satisfaction was determined by averaging the percentages of physicians who would choose medicine and their specialty again and the percentages of those who thought they were fairly compensated.

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